last part of the modern period when considering the modern period as beginning with Renaissance (artistic line) or with the 17th century (philosophical line, for instance, Descartes) and as ending in crisis, non-accomplishment, and failure.
Adding the modernist concern with individual psychological and spiritual experience and the modernist attempt to achieve originality on both thematic and structural levels of the literary discourse, we have a number of texts as short stories – that is, Dubliners – which present the condition of modern man as comprising four main aspects: childhood, adolescence, maturity and public life.
The chronotope of the city in Dubliners as conceived by James Joyce reveals a background and a temporal dimension characterized by paralysis, staticism, and devaluation, and inhabited by subjects, not individuals, unable to establish relations and, therefore unable to rise above their pathetic condition. In this case, Joyce’s characters from the stories truly represent modern frustrated and alienated beings.
In this respect, epiphany is employed as both a thematic and structural device aimed at offering to the characters the possibility to understand their condition and, above all, to decide on whether improve it or not.
In this case, epiphany – as a literary device employed by Joyce – corresponds to his theoretical perspectives which are based on Thomas Aquinas’ consideration of the condition of beauty and which are not expressed by Joyce in extended critical and theoretical texts, but mainly through the voice of his alter-ego Stephen starting with the autobiographical fragment Stephen Hero, in which Joyce himself defines the term through the voice of his character alter-ego:
By an epiphany he meant a sudden spiritual manifestation, whether in the vulgarity of speech or of gesture or in a memorable phase of the mind itself. (Joyce, 1963, p. 211).
According to Thomas Aquinas there are three stages of beauty: “integritas”, “consonantia”, and “claritas” – which could be rendered in English by “wholeness”, “harmony” and “radiance”. While Joyce uses his epiphanies in his stories, he corresponds to Aquinas’ stages.
The present thesis is to discuss in detail the epiphanies used in Dubliners following the attempt to define and provide acceptance of the term from within the contribution of both literary theoreticians and practitioners. Besides, this thesis holds the purpose of explaining the epiphanies in all 15 short stories, with a special focus on The Sisters, Araby, A Painful Case, and The Dead, and a particular emphasis on the character representation strategies as applied by the modernist writer to achieve the spiritual and psychological concern regarding the growth, progress, frustration, alienation, regress, failure, triviality, and other aspects of the human condition in a period of crisis and paralysis in the history of humanity.
In in doing so, we embark on a critical endeavour reified and sustained by the methodological system provided, among others, by comparative approach and thematology.
CHAPTER 1
JAMES JOYCE AND DUBLINERS
James Augustine Aloysius Joyce, an Irish poet and novelist, is one of the most important avant-garde writers of European Modernism. Throughout his life, he constantly felt in exile. He never felt himself belong to somewhere. He felt to be in exile not only in Trieste but also in Zurich and even in Dublin, which he left bearing the thought that the city was totally paralyzed. This paralysis is not only in thought but also in senses. James Joyce moved many times as his father John Stanislaus Joyce did. His habit seems to have been inherited from his father. His constant changing as if he had been on the move sometimes resulted by his deep frustrations about the publications of his books. However, his moving once gained one of the best known telegraphs in world of literature: his mother’s telegram deeply affected him. He always felt himself guilty as clearly revealed in his masterpiece Ulysses.
Dublin, which was a doomed place for James Joyce, was the setting for his short story book Dubliners, consisting of fifteen stories. It wasn’t easy to be published and took nearly ten years for him to publish it. In the second half of 1904 his first stories appeared: The Sisters. Originally James Joyce had ten stories in his mind. His designing imagination, however, immediately conceived of The Sisters as the first of ‘a series of epicleti-ten’ which he already called Dubliners ‘to betray the soul of that hemiplegia or paralysis which many consider a city’. Epicleti referred to the prayer of the Orthodox Church in which the Holy Ghost is invoked to transmute bread and wine into the body and blood of Christ (Anderson, 1998 p. 52).
The first ten stories in his mind were The Sisters, An Encounter, The Boarding House, After The Race, Eveline, Clay, Counterparts, A Painful Case, Ivy Day In The Committee Room, and The Mother. In a letter to his brother Stanislaus Joyce in 1905, Joyce disclosed his intend to write twelve stories in four main sections
contrary to his first intention to write ten stories (Walzl, 1977). In a letter to Grant Richardson, his publisher, James Joyce wrote:
My intention was to write a chapter of the moral history of my country and I have tried to present it to the indifferent public under four of its aspects: childhood, adolescence, maturity and public life. The stories are arranged in this order. I have written it for the most part of in a style of scrupulous meanness and with the conviction that he is a very bold man who dares to alter in the presentment, still more to deform whatever he has seen and heard (Joyce cited in Fargnoli & Gillespie, 2006, p. 46).
By adding Araby and Grace, Joyce completed the book to twelve stories as he wrote to his brother. Afterwards by adding Two Gallants, A Little Cloud in 1906, he finished fourteen stories in total. Finally by writing The Dead, which is much more detailed when compared the rest of the stories, he completed his stories to fifteen. These stories represent four phases. To be more precise, The Sisters, An Encounter and Araby are full of memories of childhood whereas Eveline, After The Race, Two Gallants and The Boarding House and put in experiences of adolescence. As for third cycle for maturity, A Little Cloud, Counterparts, Clay and A Painful Case were added. The last division for the first version of the Dubliners about the Dublin’s Life consisted of Ivy Day in the Committee Room, A Mother, Grace and The Dead, which took three years (1904-1907) to complete his Dubliners. As what is death in life circle, The Dead was embedded to the Dubliners. As Friedrich and Walzl expound these fifteen stories provide an organic sequence of life and although he didn’t intend to write fifteen stories at first, the stories he added later complements the book as a whole (Friedrich & Walzl, 1961).
As far as the publication process is concerned, although it took three years to write the book, it took nearly ten years to reach his aim to publish it. His collection of short stories, Dubliners, on which he had been working since 1904, was finally published on 15 June 1914. The long publication process -let’s say battle- resulted in frustration as his book sold 499 copies while the royalties for the book would be paid after 500 copies based on the contract with Grant Richards, but following years
didn’t help James Joyce to grant money since the number of copies sold decreased ( Anderson, 1998).
CHAPTER 2
EPIPHANY WITHIN AND BEYOND LITERARY PRACTICE
2.1 Definition and acceptance of the term
The term “epiphany” comes from the word “epiphaneia” in Greek mythology meaning “appearing” or “appearance” about gods. “It is used usually with reference to the gods, pertaining to their miracles, their accession to Mount Olympus to be with the Greek pantheon, or to their return to earth” (Hays & Duvall & Pate, 2007, p. 60). It suggests a phenomenon that emphasizes the visibility of a hidden sacred. “It can be either in the form of a personal appearance, or by some deed of power by which its presence is made known" (Arndt & Gingrich & Danker, 1956, p. 630).
Moreover; the term “epiphaneia” is used in the New Testament as follows: “And then the lawless one will be revealed (apokalupsis), and the Lord Jesus will slay him with the breath of his mouth and destroy him by his appearing (epiphaneia) and his coming (parousia).” (2 Thess. 2:8-10). “but now has been made known through the appearing (epiphaneias) of our Savior, Christ Jesus, on the one hand, in order to abolish death and, on the other, to bring to light life and incorruptibility through the gospel” (2 Timothy 1:10). “I solemnly charge you in the presence of God and Christ Jesus, who is about to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and by his kingdom:” (2 Timothy 4:1). “Now is reserved for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will give to me on that Day, but not only to me but also to everyone who has loved his appearing (epiphaneian)” 2 Timothy 4:8). “waiting for the blessed hope, the appearing (epiphaneian) of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ” (Titus 2:13).
“Epiphaneia” in the New Testament refers to Christ’s second coming to the earth. This second coming, “epiphaneia”, will be the destruction for the lawless one. However, there is an exception to the meaning in (2 Timothy 1:10) “where epiphaneia describes the first coming of Christ, whose death and resurrection have
made more clear the reality of the immortality of the Christian” (Hays & Duvall & Pate, 2007, p. 50).
In Christian tradition, the feast following the twelve days of Christmas (the 6th of January) is called Epiphany. It is the celebration of the revelation of divinity of Christ’s divinity to the Magi (wise men). The West Church starts to celebrate it in the 4th century. On the other hand, it signifies another event when St John the Baptist baptized Jesus.
As for James Joyce’s use of epiphany, he disparately uses them in a secular way by leaving aside its divine connotation as Öğretir suggests (Öğretir, 2005). Only in the story The Dead, he emerges his secular usage of epiphany, which leads a revelation, and its divine usage, 6th of January. His first practical use of epiphanies goes back to before his writing Dubliners. Unlike his use of epiphanies in Dubliners, his first epiphanies are separate paragraphs or dialogues that are not even one page long. However, in the essence these short paragraphs or dialogues provide a revelation. It is known that Joyce has written seventy one epiphanies from 1901 to 1904, but only forty of them have survived. His brother, Stanislaus Joyce, mentions these epiphanies in his book:
Another experimental form which his literary urge took while we were living at this address consisted in the noting of what he called “epiphanies” – manifestations or revelations. Jim always had a contempt for secrecy, and these notes were in the beginning ironical observations of slips, and little errors and gestures- mere straws in the wind- by which people betrayed the very things they were most careful to conceal. Epiphanies were always brief sketches, hardly ever more than some dozen lines in length, but always very accurately observed and noted, the matter being so slight……. The revelation and importance of the subconscious had caught his interest. The epiphanies became more frequently subjective and included dreams which he considered in some way revelatory (Joyce, 2003, pp. 124-125).
Some critics have the opinion that the reason why James Joyce’s only forty epiphanies out of seventy-one survives is that Joyce has destroyed thirty one of them
on purposely because of his using them in Dubliners. We reckon upon Stanislaus’ statements since some of them have been copied by him. On the other hand, Ilaria Natali suggests an assumption about James Joyce’s first epiphanies as paragraphs or dialogues:
As a matter of fact, Stanislaus might have copied James’ epiphanies with different criteria, thus we cannot be sure that he respected authorial choices. The reasons why he transcribed the texts are unclear, as also the function and meaning they had for him; It is evident, for example, that he selected only narrative sketches, probably out of personal preference (Natalia, 2011, p. 9).
It seems not possible to claim that these forty epiphanies have originally been written by James Joyce as these texts might have been changed or chosen by personal criteria.
As regards James Joyce’s adaptation of epiphany, there is scarce information about it. We rely on his own description on epiphany. In the Stephen Hero, which is the early version of A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, he renders his own description:
A young lady was standing on the steps of one of those brown brick houses which seem the very incarnation of Irish paralysis. A young gentleman was leaning on the rusty railings of the area. Stephen as he passed on his quest heard the following fragment of colloquy out of which he received an impression keen enough to afflict his sensitiveness very severely.
The Young Lady - (drawling discreetly) ... 0, yes... I ... at the ...cha...pel... The Young Gentleman - (inaudibly) ... I ... (again inaudibly) ... I
The Young Lady - (softly) .0... but you're ... ve....ry... wick...ed...
This triviality made him think of collecting many such moments together in a book of epiphanies. By an epiphany he meant a sudden spiritual manifestation, whether in the vulgarity of speech or of gesture or in a memorable phase of the mind itself. He believed that it was for the man of letters to record these epiphanies with extreme care, seeing that they themselves are the most delicate and evanescent of moments. (Joyce, 1963, p. 211).
According to Ellmann et al. Stephen makes a distinction “the vulgarity of speech or of gesture”, which means dramatic epiphany and “a memorable phase of the mind itself”, which means lyrical epiphany, thus they emphasize the “twin poles” of James Joyce’s use of epiphany as “dramatic irony” and “lyric sentiment” (Ellmann & Litz & Ferguson, 1991, p. 158).
The mostly widespread meaning of Epiphany refers to a moment when a person lives through a realization in which s/he understands the condition. Epiphany is a sudden revelation of the truth. It is a moment of insight or comprehension of something, which changes the outlook of the person realizing it. It is also a discovery for which a journey to the inner world is required. However, in Dubliners there is no hint that there is a shift in the life of the character in Dubliners. Beja defines epiphany as:
a sudden spiritual manifestation, whether from some object, scene, event, or memorable phase of the mind--the manifestation being out of proportion to the significance or strictly logical relevance of whatever produces it (Beja, 1971, p. 18).
In the hands of Joyce, Epiphany is also an artistic comprehension. Here it is best to refer again to Stephen Hero:
-Imagine my glimpses at that clock as the gropings of a spiritual eye which seeks to adjust its vision to an exact focus. The moment the focus is reached the object is epiphanised. It is just in this epiphany that I find the third, the supreme quality of beauty.
-Yes? said Cranly absently.
-No esthetic theory, pursued Stephen relentlessly, is of any value which investigates with the aid of the lantern of tradition. What we symbolise in black the Chinaman may symbolise in yellow: each has his own tradition. Greek beauty laughs at Coptic beauty and the American Indian derides them both. It is almost impossible to reconcile all tradition whereas it is by no means impossible to find the justification of every form of beauty which has ever been adored on the earth by an examination into the mechanism of esthetic apprehension whether it be dressed in red, white, yellow or black. We have no reason for thinking that the Chinaman has a different system of
digestion from that which we have though our diets are quite dissimilar. The apprehensive faculty must be scrutinised in action.
-Yes ...
-You know what Aquinas says: The three things requisite for beauty are, integrity, a wholeness, symmetry and radiance. Some day I will expand that sentence into a treatise. Consider the performance of your own mind when confronted with any object, hypothetically beautiful. Your mind to apprehend that object divides the entire universe into two parts, the object, and the void which is not the object. To apprehend it you must lift it away from everything else: and then you perceive that it is one integral thing, that is a thing. You recognise its integrity. Isn't that so?
-And then?
-That is the first quality of beauty: it is declared in a simple sudden synthesis of the faculty which apprehends. What then? Analysis then. The mind considers the object in whole and in part, in relation to itself and to other objects, examines the balance of its parts, contemplates the form of the object, traverses every cranny of the structure. So the mind receives the impression of the symmetry of the object. The mind recognises that the object is in the strict sense of the word, a thing, a definitely constituted entity. You see?
-Let us turn back, said Cranly.
They had reached the corner of Grafton St and as the footpath was overcrowded they turned back northwards. Cranly had an inclination to watch the antics of a drunkard who had been ejected from a bar in Suffolk St but Stephen took his arm summarily and led him away.
For a long time I couldn’t make out what Aquinas meant. He uses a figurative word (a very unusual thing for him) but I have solved it. Claritas is quidditas. After the analysis which discovers the second quality the mind makes the only logically possible synthesis and discovers the third quality. This is the moment which I call epiphany. First we recognise that the object is one integral thing, and then we recognize that it is an organized composite structure, a thing in fact: finally, when the relation of the parts is exquisite, when the parts are adjusted to the special point, we recognize that it is that thing which it is. The soul of the commonest object seems to us radiant. The object achieves its epiphany (Joyce, 1963, pp. 212-213).
From Stephen Hero it is clear that for James Joyce’s epiphany is a part of beauty. In this respect, his aesthetic consideration of using epiphany brings Joyce’s together with Walter Pater’s. On the other hand, it is evident that Pater’s and Joyce’s
aesthetic considerations are reminiscent but they differ from each other in many respects. Pater’s aesthetic consideration is more deeply rooted. Pater esteems that art is in the first place as he thinks “art for art’s sake”. Golban draws attention to Pater’s consideration of art:
It is art where the finest sensations are to be found and where the human existence has the possibility of preserving the intense but fleeting moments of experience …… man should strive to purify his sensations (Golban, 2008, p. 104).
In this respect, whereas Pater’s aesthetic is the source of his thoughts, Joyce’s aesthetic is discovered by an epiphanic moment. His characters embark on the key role. The success results from Joyce’s choice of interference with his characters. Perlis suggests that Joyce doesn’t want any intervention by subjectivism and wants to “allow objects to achieve a radiant life of their own” (Perlis, 1980, p. 275). This means that his characters are not the centre of everything rather they are only objects in their ordinary lives. However, as Joyce allows them to live through their own experiences, his characters reveal beauty with their epiphanic moments.
To sum up, James Joyce is inspired by many conceptions while constructing his original epiphany. The conceptions such as “spot of time”, “aesthetic value”, “fleeting moments”, “purifying sensations” and “whatness” are all parts of Joyce’s epiphany, which signifies its accumulation from religious origins through Romantic poets and aesthetic considerations.
2.2 Practitioners on Epiphany
Although epiphany is generally concerned to be used only by modernist writers, its first use goes back to Romantic poets. Barfoot defines epiphany in three “senses” which are the same in essence: The first one is “ecclesiastical provenance”, which is directly related to divinity. The second one is James Joyce’s use of it by discovering a universal truth in ordinary but an important discovery. The third one finding something that is likened to epiphany: “alight on the sense of an experience” (Barfoot, 1999, p. 61). Romantic poets might be in the third sense. Romantic poets, especially through nature tried to find of essence of living which provided experiences and realization and these are different from James Joyce’s adding aesthetic conception.
In this respect, Wim Tigges thinks that there is a link between Romantic Poets and James Joyce. He emphasizes the usage and importance of “the notion of time” in Wordsworth, Blake, Shelly and Emerson (Tigges, 1999). According to Robert Langbaum “spot of time”, which was used by William Wordsworth in The Prelude was the one century early form of epiphany (Langbaum, in Tigges, 1999):
There are in our existence spots of time, That with distinct pre-eminence retain A renovating virtue, whence–depressed By false opinion and contentious thought, Or aught of heavier or more deadly weight, In trivial occupations, and the round Of ordinary intercourse–our minds Are nourished and invisibly repaired; A virtue, by which pleasure is enhanced, That penetrates, enables us to mount,
To be more precise, we think that it is better to refer to Wordsworth’s consideration of poetry. As Golban suggests, Wordsworth takes the purpose of poetry in three types: pleasure, knowledge and moral concerns. This means that Wordsworth takes not only individual but also moral codes. He combines emotion and rational with moral considerations. On the other hand, Wordsworth as Golban specifies puts emphasis on knowledge: “the understanding of the Reader must necessarily be in some enlightened” (Golban, 2008, p. 84). When we move from the point of enlightenment it is possible to trace back to Wordsworth for the use of epiphany in essence. Also, moral concerns are embedded in Joyce’s works.
Another Romantic Poet, Ralph Waldo Emerson also touches on epiphany:
Day creeps after day, each full of facts, dull strange, despised things, that we cannot enough despise, - call heavy, prosaic and desert. The time we seek to kill: the attention it is elegant to divert from things around us. And presently the aroused intellect finds gold and gems in one of these scorned facts, - then finds that the day of facts is a rock of diamonds; that a fact is an Epiphany of God (Emerson, 1960, p. 90).
Emerson seems to have correlated a philosophical point of view. His realization is rather a general attitude and seems to have been gained through accumulating experiences. When compared to other Romantic poets, Wordsworth’s “spot of time” bears the most resemblance as it signifies moment as James Joyce emphasizes.
Regarding James Joyce’s contemporary writers such as Virginia Woolf, Joseph Conrad, Marcel Proust, William Faulkner, Katherine Mansfield and George Eliot they also use epiphany in their works.
To illustrate, George Eliot uses epiphany in Middlemarch by her character Dorothea Brooke. Kim suggests that Eliot’s use of epiphany is linked to “Dorothea’s
Bildung”. Kim explains Eliot’s epiphany by pointing its propriety to the development of character:
Eliot’s use of epiphany in has an unusual relation to similar novels of development. Strangely, although both male and female authors report epiphanies in Puritan autobiography, epiphany seems more common to women in the bildungsroman genre. As they identify distinctive traits of the female bildungsroman, Elizabeth Abel, Marianne Hirsch, and Elizabeth Langland observe that “development may be compressed into brief epiphanic moments. Since the significant changes are internal, flashes of recognition often replace the continuous unfolding of an action (Kim, 2012. p. 75).
Whereas Eliot’s use of it suggests a development in character, which makes them round characters, Joyce’s characters mostly do not present a development.
In Marcel Proust’s “Remembrance of Times Past” a series of epiphanies are presented through the end of the book by encountering a number of death experiences. Proust never mentions the term epiphany, instead, he uses “incarnation, manifestation, revelation and resurrection” (Kearney, 2005, p. 12).
Virginia Woolf, one of the best known writers in the twentieth century, is the representative of experimental novel. As modernist writers, Virginia Woolf and James Joyce are experimental and innovative on both structural and thematic levels. On structural level Woolf uses “stream of consciousness” technique as James Joyce does. The technique is used in the form of interior monologue as the abstract manifestation of the mind through which an idea, a memory, a wish, feeling, remembrance an event or experience with the help of contact with reality and subconscious. Moreover; Joyce and Woolf both raise “stream of consciousness” technique to the artistic perfection. Woolf name doesn’t use word “epiphany” but uses “a moment of importance”, expressing a mental expression. According to Ma they both use the external impact on their characters’ minds; they reveal an understanding or revelation without giving any comment (MA, 2011). As the
essence of stream of consciousness, thoughts are running fluidly and they are never constricted by any grammatical rules. Resulted from free association, thoughts are not interfered or commented by the writer as they are in reality.
James Joyce’s epiphanies bear a contrast with Virginia Woolf’s use of epiphanies. Ma states three differences between “epiphany” and “moment of importance”. The first difference is that whereas the former sticks to the plot of the story, the latter embodies the characteristics of promptness, randomness and fragmentation. The second one refers to epiphany as it forms the climax of the story which leads to the end whereas the moment of importance is a perpetual flow in the world of the character. The third one is in fact closely bound with the second one, and it regards the social essence, impact or even social concern of epiphany, however, moment of importance is of individual (MA, 2011). This does not mean that epiphany is not individual, but rather the sudden realization is from the social to the individual that makes epiphany more panoramic. Besides, Joyce’s epiphanies are not solely confined to the inner world of a character, but strongly affiliated with the character’s social, religious or national affairs.
CHAPTER 3
JAMES JOYCE AND HIS USE OF EPIPHANY IN DUBLINERS
3. 1 Epiphany Disclosing the Condition of Modern Man in Dubliners
As a modernist writer James Joyce, who is experimental and innovative both on thematic and structural levels, mostly uses family, nationalism and religion issues in his works. Worthily his characters are real as in everyday life. Since the Roman Catholic Church is an important part of Irish people, infusing Irish society he shows prevalent effect of the Church in the public in his works.
From the fifteen short stories in Dubliners what can be found is the essence of the entire city of Dublin, where paralysis and stagnation are run rampant. Ordinary people in an ordinary city experience ordinary situations. However, these experiences are not ordinary for the people experiencing them rather these ordinary situations are touchstones for them. The reason why Joyce chooses Dublin as the setting can be explained by his own words:
My intention was to write a chapter of the moral history of my country and I chose Dublin for the scene because that city seemed to me the centre of paralysis. I have tried to present it to the indifferent public under four of its aspects: childhood, adolescence, maturity and public life. The stories are arranged in this order. I have written it for the most part in a style of scrupulous meanness and with the conviction that he is a very bold man who dares to alter in the presentment, still more to deform, whatever he has seen and heard (Stuart & Ellmann & Gilbert, 1966 p. 134).
Fargnoli and Gillespie mention that Dubliners “is a searing analysis of Irish middle- and lower-middle-class life, with Dublin not simply as its geographical setting but as the emotional and psychological locus as well” (Fargnoli & Gillespie, 2006, p. 45). James Joyce fills his childhood experiences into Dubliners. To him, Dublin is a place where spiritually paralyzing reality occurs. Chester suggests that
Joyce portrayed “epiphanized reality” “in ordinary Dublin life” (Chester, 1998, p. 6). Hence, the uniqueness of James Joyce’s Dubliners comes from ordinariness. As we have mentioned earlier, his first forty surviving epiphanies gives an impression of precept. However, the epiphanies that are used in Dubliners are quite vivid for the grounds that they are from everyday life, which makes his epiphanies very similar due to the fact that personal experience or realization comes from the ordinary life, making his characters alive let alone credible. In this respect, Joyce’s characters are panoramic.
Dubliners is divided into four parts as James Joyce himself stated: “childhood, adolescence, maturity and public life”. Although these phases follow each other, it is not the case for the geography of Dublin. As Bulson underlines the overlap of the movement of characters and the public places where characters call at such as church, shops, restaurants and pubs reflect the “moments of transition” of Dublin (Bulson, in Rabaté, 2004, p. 55). Thus, the transition of a city intermingles with the transition of moral and national issues.
While in some stories the transition of an issue of place prevalent, in some “twoness or doubling” is seen in Dubliners: “the doubles of the absent father, such as the two expected candles in The Sisters; the doubled characters of Two Gallants and Counterparts; the double meanings that pervade the whole ensemble” (Ellmann, 2010, p. 104).
As far as his characterization is concerned, his characters in Dubliners are kneaded not only with their intellectual aspects but also with their moral aspects. This means that his panoramic characters are not portrayed in unilateral. However, when it comes to the moment of revelation, the intellectual aspects of his characters come into prominence even though the origin of epiphanies has a divine aspect. With the intellectual completion the divinity aspect of his epiphanies becomes secular by the realization or the deep insight of characters. Through this realization or deep insight, the term whose origin lies beneath divinity turns into a secular term. It is
James Joyce, who transforms the term into “secular revelation of selfhood” (Hart, 2007, p. 345). As we have mentioned the characters in Dubliners are ordinary people who are forced to escape from triviality of their lives with the help of epiphanies. Their trivial, ordinary lives become momentous by epiphanic moments.
When his epiphanies in Dubliners are taken into consideration from the point of readers, it is evident that readers collaborate with the character during this special moment. Even in some stories, Joyce leaves reader alone in the epiphanic moment, which turns into the revelation of the reader. However, these integrated moments with the reader may result in a loose in gripping the reader. According to David Lodge, when the protagonist, reader or both realize(s) the “moment of truth” in Dubliners, it leads to an anti-climax (Lodge, 1992). Moreover, the use of epiphany weakens the dynamism of novels as Belge suggested (1994). To illustrate, in some stories in Dubliners we witness descent of some characters or values to the extent that the loss of dynamism equals to the stagnation of Dublin. However, the moments which result in loose in dynamism provides enlightenment for Joyce’s characters. That’s to say, when movements disappear, a revelation in intellectual or emotional aspect appears. On the other hand; epiphany is a structural device enabling to indicate climax and provides flashback to the past events, a device which helps integrate or complete the gaps (Palls, 1984). According to Friedrich “Joyce’s stories are symptomatic, and his “epiphanies” are therefore not so much manifestations of the spirit of re-demption in mundane and trivial situations as they are occasions for a momentary acknowledgement of the very pathos of mundaneness and triviality” (Friedrich, 1995, p. 421).
Regarding the titles of the Dubliners, Schneider suggests that Joyce uses short titles through which he expands his view of not wasting a single world to the titles and links Joyce’s usage to the “gnomon” used in The Sisters (Schneider, in Rejoycing, 1998).
These fifteen stories are mostly unhappy tales, where innocence is missing, faith is wearing thin, opportunities are missed, hypocrisies and paralysis are
common. Most of the stories begin or later plunge into darkness which descends onto Dublin’s streets and his characters. Parrinder suggests that paralysis in Dubliners “Ibsen’s diagnosis of social death or rigor mortis” (2005, p. 67). Hence characters in Dubliners are living dead. The first story starts with death as the theme the title of the last story is The Dead by why the full “circle of life” is completed (Minutiae, 2009). Whereas the child in The Sisters cannot comprehend the death, the protagonist in The Dead can fully understands what it is.
3.2 Practical Argumentation
3.2.1 Senses in The Sisters
The Sisters, which is revised by James Joyce before its publication, deals predominantly with childhood. As James Joyce himself states it fits the childhood phase. As regards the title, it refers to Father Flynn’s two sisters Eliza and Nannie, who are presented as voiceless characters. Father Flynn, a sympathetic character, has been paralyzed and after a few months he dies. The story is told by a little boy, as a first person narration. With the opening few lines the inevitability of death is presented through the eyes of a little boy who cannot make some sense at first. By using a boy’s viewpoint, James Joyce establishes an undistorted and innocent point of view. It gives us childlike perception of death. In fact the boy tries to understand the environment as if he were newly born. The boy tries to understand what death is from a naive point of view. The initial perception of the boy is through observation. The opening lines of the story provide us to realize the condition of the boy against death which he cannot grasp altogether.
HERE was no hope for him this time: it was the third stroke. Night after night I had passed the house (it was vacation time) and studied the lighted square of window: and night after night I had found it lighted in the same way, faintly and evenly. If he was dead, I thought, I would see the reflection of candles on the darkened blind for I knew that two candles must be set at the head of a corpse. He had often said to me: "I am not long for this world," and I had thought his words idle. Now I knew they were true. Every night as I gazed up at the window I said softly to myself the word paralysis. It had always sounded strangely in my ears, like the word gnomon in the Euclid and the word simony in the Catechism. But now it sounded to me like the name of some maleficent and sinful being. It filled me with fear, and yet I longed to be nearer to it and to look upon its deadly work (Joyce, 2011, p. 1).
In the very beginning “paralysis”, “gnomon” and “simony” are given. The child’s vocabulary is extended when compared to his peers and to achieve this it likely that they have been transferred from the priest. When the definitions are
concerned, gnomon is “an imperfect that is formed when a small parallelogram is removed from two sides of a larger parallelogram” and simony “is named after Simon Magus, who ignorantly offered the Apostle Peter for money for the gift of God…..Hence simony is the deliberate intention of buying or selling spiritual things for a temporal price” (Gifford, 1967, p. 30). According to Ellmann the use of gnomon and simony leads to “dynamics of loss and substitution” and concludes that as there is no father image it “functions as the gnomon or the missing corner that instigates the simoniac traffic in false father” (Ellmann, 2010 p. 109). According to Fargnoli & Gillespie, in the opening part James Joyce emphasizes the “physical, spiritual and religious decay” (Fargnoli & Gillespie, 1995 p. 48). In this respect, Karrer draws attention to a very gripping pivot by disclosing the hidden allusion of italic written words. In The Sisters “paralysis”, “simony” and “gnomon” are written in Italics. In An Encounter “The Union Jack”, “Pluck” and “The Halfpenny Marvel” are written in Italics. In the third one in Araby “The Abbot”, “The Devout Communicant” and “The Memoirs of Vidocq” are written in Italics. This shows the invisible cord between the stories, which establishes an ambiguity. This may be a reflection for life as far as its uncertainty is concerned.
In the story, from the very beginning a motionless state prevails, a state which has been caused by the paralysis. However, in this motionless state it seems that life as a dynamic process goes on. The characters in the story move forward to their destinies. In this respect, Torchiana draws attention to the destiny of the boy and his helplessness in his destiny.
For the boy’s aunt and the sisters Flynn between them in fact spin out the boy’s fate, almost unknown to him, in recounting or pointing to the priest’s passage from life to death. Fatal sisters all, the three prophetically utter the doom or slow paralysis to come for another Dublin youth of intelligence, sensitivity, and scrupulosity who will be a disappointed priest in another realm (Torchiana, 1987, p. 28).
As regards the stagnation it is possible to link this motionlessness to the city of Dublin. Different from other stories in the book, the epiphanic moment comes from the very beginning, which paralyzes the whole story. James Joyce employs senses to achieve a better comprehension of his characters. To illustrate, Nannie offers wine and after wine is tasted, it satisfies gustaoception. With “the heavy odor in the room”, the smell of flowers, it satisfies olfacception. Touching the ground it satisfies tactile and hearing stories and dialogues the last sense, signifies audibility (Valente, 1999). The employment of the senses is important since Joyce presents these senses paralysed in the stories. Concerning the little boy, the perception of death by him is conceived only by seeing, which signifies visibility. Although senses are frequently used, the fully comprehension of a truth comes from a visual sense for him.
Different from his other stories in Dubliners epiphanic moment in The Sisters seems like a collection of moments rather than just a moment. As Beck suggests “liberation comes clerical and social domination into intellectual detachment” (Beck, 1969 p. 117). Beck shows epiphany:
As the story ends with one of the sisters still talking, the reader should be able to hear as the boy would have been hearing her by that time. This is to realize that though her words are about the priest, Joyce’s story is of the boy at that point, silent and still but brimming with insight. Here an epiphany, as a total experience, shows its intellectual factor, when a few additional facts consolidate intimations toward which the receiver has been intuitively groping. The boy has heard and also overhears; being informed, he becomes self-taught (Beck, 1969, p. 47).
The paralysis in this story is not only confined to Father Flynn’s condition. Apart from motionless, it also suggests intangibility and obliteration of senses, especially audible, is prevalent. In many stories in Dubliners paralysis is pervasive through the senses. As regards the type of epiphanization, it is private and the boy tries to comprehend what dearth is.
The story ends with the unfinished sentence belonging to Eliza as if the story is not finished. In this respect, Friedrich explains that “The Sisters” as the “thematic prologue or overture” for the other stories is like a concluding paragraph of The Dead (Friedrich, 1995, p. 421). The boy in The Sisters seems to be Gabriel in The Dead, which suggests the stories in the book are sequenced or transitive stories although they seem to be separated stories at first glance.
3.2.2 Escaping Ordinariness in An Encounter
In the second story which is about childhood James Joyce’s little boy in the The Sisters seems to going to school now. The perceptions of the boy seem to have changed a lot. Although he is only receptive and refrains from speaking in The Sisters, he has conversations in An Encounter. The surrounding for the boy also changes from indoor to outdoor and he is on the way of being a self.
As James Joyce’s main issues are religion, nationality, family and education, this story is not an exception. The story which is told by the student boy touches on the education system. The system is presented through the understanding of the boys who doubtlessly find it dull, so the narrator, Mahony, and Leo Dillion want to escape from the ordinariness of life and they three plan to go to the Pigeon House, “formerly a fort, now the Dublin electricity and power station, located on a breakwater that projects out into Dublin Bay as a continuation of the south bank of the Liffey” (Gifford, 1967 p. 36). As Leo Dillion fails to come the next day the narrator and Mahony meet. Upon passing the other side by ferry, the boy and Mahony change their minds as they are tired and it is getting late, for being late may unfold their secret.
While they have a rest in the field, they meet with a man whom they find strange. At first the fairly old man comes and talks about the weather, schooldays, poets and girls. Later on he leaves them and it can be understood that he exposes his penis to them. While he is away, Mahony says “he is a queer old josser” (Joyce, 2011, p. 18). In the story it cannot be understood whether he is homosexual or pedophile. However, before leaving them whereas he talks about girls, in the second time he talks about boys and whipping them. The second appearance of the old man reveals his real intention. Here Leonard suggests that the old man’s desire is fed not from action but his fantasy, so Leonard resembles his sentences to a “verbal ejaculation” and suggests that he is satisfied more than the physical one (Leonard,
1993, p. 67). The boy seems to stand aghast or perplexed toward the newly encountered adult life as the boy in The Sisters toward death. As Beck states:
both these stories center more definitely in emotions conditioned by adolescence through projected toward growing relationships; The Sisters conversely, is not much saturated with the immediate mood of reminiscence as it is tinged with more deliberate evaluation, in a withdrawal from relationships, that by implication repudiates explicit commitment (Beck, 1969, p. 94).
The boys who get in this affair to stop the ordinariness of life want to go back or turn their daily routine. The routine now seem to be safer for them.
This encounter from which the title comes from leads to a revelation for the narrator, the boy. Revelation comes from this moment as he is active now by making fake names to trick the old man. After calling Mahony as Murphy, he feels a sudden revelation. The last two lines serve to be epiphany:
Murphy!
My voice had an accent of forced bravery in it and I was ashamed of my paltry stratagem. I had to call the name again before Mahony saw me and hallooed in answer. How my heart beat as he came running across the field to me! He ran as if to bring me aid. And I was penitent; for in my heart I had always despised him a little (Joyce, 2011, p. 19).
During his talk with the fairly old man he is exposed to his attention and the old man praises the boy, which possibly makes him feel superior to Mahony. However, with the intrigue that the boy invented, they cheat the old man. The point here is that Mahony remembers and behaves according to the boy’s plan, so he comes as if he were his saviour. They escape from the intruder without being known by their real names. “liberation comes from staining of a sense for adventure into a real knowledge of honest comradeship,” Beck States (Beck, 1969 p. 117).
In the story aspects of paralysis are frustration, isolation and failure to communicate, which lead to a private epiphanization. The protagonist feels the inescapability. The epiphanic moment is blurred with the guilt, but at the same time the guilty feeling towards Mahony results in “sudden spiritual manifestation” in “a memorable phase of the mind” (Joyce, 1963, p. 211).
3.2.3 Eyes in Araby
The story much as the first two stories is written in first person narration and is told by a boy. It is an “introspective” story with “unnamed” narrator as in the case of the first two stories (Fargnoli & Gillespie, 1995). The story begins with a description of the street given by the boy. He uses the word “blind” two times in the first paragraph and in the next paragraph, he speaks of a dead priest, who reminds the dead, father Flynn in The Sisters. “Blind” is also used in the first paragraph of The Sisters. “Blind” also makes us have a parallelism with the paralysis. In Araby, the protagonist reads “The Abbot”, “The devout Communicant” and “The Memoirs of Vidocq”. When compared to the previous two stories we clearly see the intellectual development Joyce’s characters, for the boy in the The Sisters, in An encounter boys read Wild West and finally in Araby the boy reads books. This clearly shows the intellectual progress of his characters in the childhood phase.
When compared to the first two stories, doubtlessly the boy is older and is now interfering in love affairs. While in the first story the boy is only a listener, in the second one the boy has dialogues even at the end the story, he slips out of a situation. As far as the third story is considered, the boy is extroverted. He grows aware of a girl and puts efforts to be near to her. In a sense, in the childhood phase, Joyce’s character struggles for the first time.
In first story, the boy doesn’t talk about girls, in the second one he doesn’t, either, but he is exposed to the descriptions made by the old man. In the third one, Araby the boy goes aware of a girl. This time love as a theme sets itself into the centre. As Beck states, James Joyce chooses a universal theme and sets it as a universal story.
Araby is above all a love story, of instintive-imaginative passion naively held, unavoidably lost, and recollected as ardor an disenchantment. It is everyman’s puberty rite, imperious desire blunting itself upon limitations, and fragmenting into an opposite despair (Beck, 1969, p. 97).
It is Mangan’s sister, who makes his heart leap. Gifford denotes that Mangan’s sister is an allusion to James Clarence Mangan an Irish poet and he unfolds that “Mangan’s sister is contrasted with the romantic self-dedication of the speaker in one of Mangan’s most popular poems, “Dark Rosaleen” (Gifford, 1967, pp. 38-39).
Every morning he waits for her with hope and when she gets out, he walks behind her, and he passes her in an effort to be noticed. He now develops an interest in her and finally he finds a chance to speak to her. He defines the importance as “at last she spoke to me” (Joyce, 2011, p. 22). His use of language indicates that he has made efforts though his efforts were limited in actions, but striving in the mind. Their first talk is about Araby, which is a bazaar. She expresses that she cannot go to the Araby. Although there is no implication that he has an intention to go there, now it is a duty for him since he realizes that she has set her mind on Araby. He promises her that he will bring something. This is the first contact of the boy with the girl in the dialogue form.
Waiting for his uncle to come, getting required money and going out to reach Araby before it is closed are all for a promise, which is the substratum in their relation. When he reaches the bazaar with the “magical name” it is about to close. The darkness of the most part of the hall sets a parallelism with the hope inside him as it is dim but not lost. However, soon he hears a voice that the light will be out. He finds himself in sheer darkness which symbolizes his hope that he has lost. With these sentences the epiphany emerges in his inner world:
Gazing up into the darkness I saw myself as a creature driven and derided by vanity; and my eyes burned with anguish and anger (Joyce, 2011, p. 26).
He realizes his position against external world and he deeply feels helplessness against the dynamism of life. His eyes establish a sharp contrast with his situation in darkness. His deep frustration leads to his revelation of the external and
his standing in this world. The protagonist feels nonfulfillment and frustration. With his private epiphanization, he comprehends inevitability.
This is the last story of childhood in Dubliners. The three stories are written in first person point of view. James Joyce’s aim in writing first person narration might be the reason that he exposes the naive nature of children. Another reason might be the fact that children see themselves in the centre of universe. We all experience it is not the case at all by seeing the harsh and reckless side of the external world. For this very reason James Joyce closes the childhood phase by letting his character witness the cruelty of the external world. It is likely that there is a linear movement from one story to another. With the next story James Joyce goes on with the third person narrator, emphasizing the condition of the human against external world.
3.2.4 Tears in Eveline
Stepping into the adolescence phase, James Joyce changes the first person narration into the third person narration and for the first time a female becomes the narrator. The story begins with Eveline’s sitting by the window. This moment gives the transition from the first person to the third person narration. Her eyes escape from the window from now on the centre of “I” changes and the subject “I” is lost in the darkness of the street.
As in the Araby, this is a story centred onto a love affair. James Joyce unfolds the understanding or point of view between male and female. In this story we even know our protagonist Eveline, who gives name to the title. The abundance of a dusty atmosphere is impressive. From the very beginning the word “dust” is used three times in the story:
She sat at the window watching the evening invade the avenue. Her head was leaned against the window curtains and in her nostrils was the odour of dusty cretonne (Joyce, 2011, p. 27).
Home! She looked round the room, reviewing all its familiar objects which she had dusted once a week for so many years, wondering where on earth all the dust came from (Joyce, 2011, p. 28).
Her time was running out but she continued to sit by the window, leaning her head against the window curtain, inhaling the odour of dusty cretonne”(Joyce, 2011, p. 30).
As she has lost his mother, all the household chores are carried out by Eveline, who also works at stores. Along with these duties, the lack of communication with her father and change in his attitudes towards her expose that her life is burdened with hardships. Joyce here again draws a portrait of Dublin from a perspective that women are entrapped and they have almost no voice, but a deep desire to escape, to escape from everything. The dust is like a coverlet wrapped everywhere, every memory, it is too overwhelming and the only way is to escape.
But in her new home, in a distant unknown country, it would not be like that. Then she would be married—she, Eveline. People would treat her with respect then. She would not be treated as her mother had been. Even now, though she was over nineteen, she sometimes felt herself in danger of her father's violence. She knew it was that had given her the palpitations (Joyce, 2011, p. 28).
She thinks that going too far seems to rub down all the dust that embedded her life. She is desperate to find a solution that would save her from this stifling atmosphere. For her, Frank seems to be saviour. He wants to take Eveline to Buenos Ayres, and provide her a life that she is lacking.
She must escape! Frank would save her. He would give her life, perhaps love, too. But she wanted to live. Why should she be unhappy? She had a right to happiness. Frank would take her in his arms, fold her in his arms. He would save her. (Joyce, 2011, p. 31)
It is clear that the aim is to escape and Frank seems to be only a mediator. However, Frank’s intentions are indefinite. The story does not provide us with a certainty about Frank’s character. Is Frank a kind of person as his name suggests?
She was about to explore another life with Frank. Frank was very kind, manly, open-hearted. She was to go away with him by the night-boat to be his wife and to live with him in Buenos Ayres where he had a home waiting for her (Joyce, 2011, p. 29).
As Luft suggests, “the issue of how free Eveline is to leave home is a textual manoeuvre. Awareness of such manoeuvres draws the reader away from an immediate involvement in Eveline’s dilemma” (Luft, 2009, p. 48). However, to the end of the story the Eveline’s dilemma is inevitable. Her dilemma deepens by the remembrance of her mother through a street organ. According to Leonard this functions as follows:
Eveline’s visceral recollection of her mother’s functions as a sort of mental umbilical cord that brings her unexpected and unsettling nourishment from the unseen and barely suspected world beyond the normal masquerade of feminity (Leonard, 1993, p. 100).
“Black mass of boat” and the “long mournful whistle” conflict with her desire to escape from sacrificing herself. Is the sea water a foreshadowing for her unhappiness as heap of tears in the future as Elka suggests (Elka, 2012).
The nausea inside her is brought in through epiphany.
A bell clanged upon her heart. She felt him seize her hand: "Come!"
All the seas of the world tumbled about her heart. He was drawing her into them: he would drown her. She gripped with both hands at the iron railing. "Come!"
No! No! No! It was impossible. Her hands clutched the iron in frenzy. Amid the seas she sent a cry of anguish!
"Eveline! Evvy!"
He rushed beyond the barrier and called to her to follow. He was shouted at to go on but he still called to her. She set her white face to him, passive, like a helpless animal. Her eyes gave him no sign of love or farewell or recognition (Joyce, 2011, p 32).
Her epiphany intermingles with her physical and emotional paralysis, which prevents her from getting on the boat. The paralysis now captures her body after her thoughts. She cannot go, as she was struck. The motionlessness leads to her frustration. With her private epiphanic moment, she understands the inescapability. According to Khan epiphany in Eveline differs from other stories, as it does not hold “transformative” and “restorative potential” rather they are “inefficacious” or “catastrophic” (Khan, 2013). Although Eveline’s paralysis keeps her from setting out her long journey, it allows her the possibility to perform an inner journey, to herself. Moreover; when the ending of the story is compared to Araby, Beck indicates that Eveline shed tears, whereas the boy in Araby burdens his tears inside, and he links this fact to different reactions of male and female (Beck, 1969).
3.2.5 Triviality in After the Race
It is the second story about adolescence and is written in third person narration. Unlike the previous story Eveline, the protagonist of After the Race is now male again, called Jimmy Doyle. “He was about twenty-six years of age, with a soft, light brown moustache and rather innocent-looking grey eyes” (Joyce, 2011, p. 33).
Fargnoli and Gillespie put forth the importance of the shift of narrative as follows:
the narrative shifts its emphasis from the central issues that characterize the other pieces in the collection—alienation and frustration within the middle and lower-middle classes—to focus attention on the nouveaux riches (Fargnoli & Gillespie, 2006 p. 54).
This time the prevalent mood is nonchalance, starting with Jimmy Doyle’s father and span to every character: “His father, who had begun life as an advanced Nationalist, had modified his views early” (Joyce, 2011, p. 33). Through the story an international glance is provided as James Joyce uses French cars, German car, Belgian driver, Canadian birth Andre Riviee, Hungarian named Villiona, Englishman named Routh, American’s yacht. To the end of the story they drink Ireland, England, France, Hungary, the United States of America. His father’s changing views bear parallelism with many nationalities. Jimmy Doyle’s father, who once supported his education, now supports his dealings, which only base upon money and status. This shows his father’s ultimate change both in his thoughts and actions. Among these nations, Jimmy Doyle might represent Irish people. Through his character James Joyce represents identity problems Dubliners have.
According to Torchiana the race presented in the story represents the Battle of Castlebar, which is later called Races of Castlebar. Joyce uses irony which discloses itself at the end of the story. While Jimmy Doyle has a victory in the beginning, he is a loser at the end as the outcome of Racer of Castlebar, which is a defeat for French and Irish (Torchiana, 1987, pp. 80-81).
Jimmy Doyle is a well-educated young man, however, the education background he has conflicts with the triviality he is living through. “He had sent his son to England to be educated in a big Catholic college and had afterwards sent him to Dublin University to study law” (Joyce, 2011, p. 33). His trivial condition is a parallel to the triviality of the modern man. Khan depicts that there is a race much as the title suggests. The race is in the society to gain a footing or statue (Khan, 2013).
Through the story, it is evident how people are estranged from each other and although they seem to be close.
Jimmy and his Hungarian friend sat behind. Decidedly Villona was in excellent spirits; he kept up a deep bass hum of melody for miles of the road. The Frenchmen flung their laughter and light words over their shoulders and often Jimmy had to strain forward to catch the quick phase. This was not altogether pleasant for him, as he had nearly always to make a deft guess at the meaning and shout back a suitable answer in the face of a high wind. Besides Villona's humming would confuse anybody; the noise of the car, too (Joyce, 2011, pp. 34-35).
The main concern is the alienation and loneliness the modern man lives through. Man is so entrapped with the triviality of the day that, he cannot realize his condition.
Jimmy made a speech, a long speech, Villona saying: "Hear! hear!" whenever there was a pause. There was a great clapping of hands when he sat down. It must have been a good speech (Joyce, 2011, p. 39).
What Jimmy cares is to be there physically, but why and what for are not his concerns. He cannot judge even his own speech; he is dependent on the comments or the approval of others whom he thinks important for him.
To the end of the story, Jimmy and his friends go to the Belle of Newport, which is “an allusion to the early twentieth-century reputation of Newport as the ultimate in the lavish and mindless display of new wealth” (Gifford, 1967, p. 45).
Unlike the other stories we have dealt before, Joyce uses epiphany in this story by using time itself, so the importance of the moment is realized by the moment as universal. The last lines of the story unfold the time delusion Jimmy is in:
He knew that he would regret in the morning but at present he was glad of the rest, glad of the dark stupor that would cover up his folly. He leaned his elbows on the table and rested his head between his hands, counting the beats of his temples. The cabin door opened and he saw the Hungarian standing in a shaft of grey light:
"Daybreak, gentlemen!" (Joyce, 2011, p. 39).
James Joyce’s epiphanies are for everybody, making a sudden realization of a truth. In After The Race we have a portrait of an afflicted person with class distinction and a wannabe. Triviality, alienation and powerlessness are their common characteristics. Again Joyce brings forward nationality affair. It is also a portrait of a group of people losing their memories.
3.2.6 Slavey in Two Gallants
Two Gallants is the third story in adolescence phase in which James Joyce uses third person narration. James Joyce himself stated that Two Gallants was his one of the favourite stories. It was not in the first twelve stories, he added it later. Although his publisher wanted him to omit Two Gallants he resisted at the risk of ruining publication of the book, stating following:
I have agreed to omit the troublesome word (bloody) in Two Gallants. To omit the story from the book would really be disastrous. It is one of the most important stories in the book. I would rather sacrifice five of the (which I could name) than this one. It is the story after (Ivy Day in the Committee Room) which pleases me most. I have shown you that I can concede something to your fears. But you cannot really expect me to mutilate my work (Stuart & Ellmann & Gilbert 1966, p87-88).
The story, like many stories in the book, takes place in the dark, from evening to night. As in the other stories, the characters are left in the darkness. As far as its characters are concerned, they are ordinary Dubliners. However, this time the triviality of the characters are unrivalled when compared to the six stories we have examined so far. To start with the title, it is an irony when the main characters are taken into consideration, as Lenehan and Corley are stuck into narrowness not only in vicinity but also in their thoughts. Lenehan admires Corley for his craft in chatting up with girls, so in the story Corley is dominant. As Leonard suggest “Corley moves from being Lenehan’s puppet to becoming his messiah” (Leonard 1993, p. 125).
According to Fargnoli and Gillespie from the very beginning of the story the themes reveal:
In its opening lines, Two Gallants first foregrounds images of smug materiality, and then quickly undercuts them with descriptions introducing the themes of futility, insensitivity, hypocrisy, and bitterness that emerge over the course of the narrative (Fargnoli & Gillespie, 2006, p. 56).
Apart from these themes, one of the main themes in the story is betrayal, as Litz suggests. When James Joyce leaves Dublin, he has a feeling of “betrayed by many of his contemporaries”, but his staying in Pola and Trieste aggravates this feeling let alone alleviate, so while writing this story, the feeling of betrayed is dominant (Litz, 1996). The betrayal begins with the title, as Corley pretends to be polite although he is not. It seems that James Joyce’s selection of the title and the inner world of the characters exhibit his frustration. Ellmann denotes that James Joyce’s stories mostly represent “distinction between victim and victimizer” and names the slavey as an “obvious victim” and concludes that “in Dublin the exploited exploit each other in a world reduced to debt and doubt” (Ellmann, 2010, p. 112). Victims and victimizer are intertwined in Dubliners as a victimizer is a victim in other standpoint. Although the young slavey in Two Gallants seems to exploit Corley, she is at the same time exploited by him. James Joyce again uses universal themes and his ordinary Dubliners to burden universal issues.
Corley meets with young slavey, but Lenehan wants to see their meeting. Now, Lenehan is alone. Lenehan is such a lonely man that he simply does not have any opinion how to wait for him: “The problem of how he could pass the hours till he met Corley again troubled him a little. He could think of no way of passing them but to keep on walking” (Joyce, 2011, p. 47). He is deep in loneliness, but his concern is to be or at least pretend to be in upper-class member, so the frustration goes deep inside him. To illustrate while waiting for Corley, Lenehan drops in a Refreshment Bar to eat.
He paused at last before the window of a poor-looking shop over which the words Refreshment Bar were printed in white letters. ……. He eyed this food earnestly for some time and then, after glancing warily up and down the street, went into the shop quickly (Joyce, 2011, p. 47).
He tries not to be seen by anybody though people know him should know the truth which he ignores. After he satisfies his hunger at the Refreshment Bar some
questions have arisen in his mind that may lead some a kind of illumination about his life:
This vision made him feel keenly his own poverty of purse and spirit. He was tired of knocking about, of pulling the devil by the tail, of shifts and intrigues. He would be thirty-one in November. Would he never get a good job? Would he never have a home of his own? He thought how pleasant it would be to have a warm fire to sit by and a good dinner to sit down to. He had walked the streets long enough with friends and with girls. He knew what those friends were worth: he knew the girls too. Experience had embittered his heart against the world (Joyce, 2011, p. 48).
In deep he is asking for a decent life; a life different from the one he has had so far. By starting questioning, a kind of trial of illumination starts:
But all hope had not left him. He felt better after having eaten than he had felt before, less weary of his life, less vanquished in spirit. He might yet be able to settle down in some snug corner and live happily if he could only come across some good simple-minded girl with a little of the ready (Joyce, 2011, p. 49).
After having his dinner, he runs into his two friends, who ask trivial questions. The conversation between them is restricted to these questions and the triviality is prevailing.
Finally Corley appears just after Lenehan’s mind is looking for answers for the matters about Corley. He is obsessed with Corley and he thinks as if he were Corley. Lenehan watches Corley and slavey’s coming. He realizes that after the slavey gets into the house a woman goes out and again gets in. When he meets with Corley, he doesn’t answer, they walk, but he doesn’t answer to his questions. However, when it is far enough from the slavey’s house, he answers, which is an epiphanic moment:
Corley halted at the first lamp and stared grimly before him. Then with a grave gesture he extended a hand towards the light and, smiling, opened it
